Interview with Alan Dershowitz
(Video: Lior Sharon)
“Already the court has basically said the last charges aren't particularly strong. The first charges involving amounts of liquor and other things are not really the kind of case you should bring,” he added.
He also addressed criticism from some Israelis who oppose foreign involvement in domestic legal matters, dismissing it as politically motivated. “A lot of these people have BDS — Bibi Derangement Syndrome,” he said, using a term to mock Netanyahu's critics. “Nothing Netanyahu does is ever correct, nothing that anybody does on his behalf is ever correct.”
Describing the indictment over media relations as absurd, Dershowitz said, “Is there any politician who doesn’t try to get the media to give favorable information about them and their family? It really violates the principles of free speech.”
“There’s no question that Hamas has won the information war,” he said. “They have a strategy: kill Israeli civilians and provoke Israel into fighting back, hide your civilians among terrorists and then Israel will kill civilians. And then Piers Morgan will turn against the Israeli army.”
Comparing Israel’s military campaign to U.S. conduct during World War II, he added, “What Israel has been doing is no different from what America did when it was fighting Nazism and Imperial Japan. In fact, Israel has killed fewer civilians than any comparable army in any comparable war in modern history.”
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump
(Photo: Kevin Dietsch, GettyImages)
Dershowitz warned that Israel may be losing support among the next generation of Americans. “College students today, who are the future leaders, are turning against Israel,” he said. But he stressed that Israel cannot afford to let international perception shape its national security.
“Israel has to fight its own battles and it has to remember it really has no friends that it can count on,” he said. “Only through strength will Israel achieve peace.”
He added that Israel must prioritize military victory over public relations: “The world loves winners. Donald Trump loves winners. It is far better to fight back, win the wars and then worry about public relations later.”
